BTS - Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 4 (131) (Patreon)

G'day mates, welcome to the conclusion of the Ty Series BTS blogs, it has been  a huge journey and we still have a video doco to come. The video will cover some of the same topics as these posts, along with some new information about the general production of the series. But until then, let's check out the finale episode!

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The Personal Stuff...
Before we get stuck into it, I'd like to explain what was going on with me at the time. I've hinted at things here and there for the past 7-8 months that there have been problems and despite thinking the severity of issues had peaked at the beginning of September 2019, then AGAIN in December. I was wrong.
It turns out they peaked THE DAY of filming this episode. Without going into the dirty laundry, I collapsed to the floor and had a panic attack/fit/something about... 1-2 hours before filming this episode. So that was interesting. I'm very thankful that I didn't seem off in the actual episode. It did make the day a difficult and exhausting one, but it got done in the end. Just for things to get worse right after, but in a way that actually cheered me up which is interesting.

I am very happy to report that this was the turning point for things being A LOT better since, hence why I've been able to have somewhat more consistent uploads in the early stages of 2020.

The Double Shoot:
Probably the most interesting factoid with this episode is that it started being shot in May of 2019, VERY close to the beginning of actual production. It's interesting to see a lot of what was filmed way back then, there was a massive fallen tree that made for a perfect set piece to start the episode that was still used in the re-shoot, which was much later in January of 2020. By then I'd grown a shockingly terrible beard as part of the storyline being lost in the bush for weeks, so I decided to just start from scratch. Both for continuity and also knowing things would turn out a lot better the second time around. So just take a look at some of these comparison shots and see how things changed.

The difference between Winter and Summer filming is quite obvious, but there are examples where I feel that the originals may have been better. Specifically with the Tiger shots, the thicker terrain looks far better than the wide open area. However... the 2019 shots were my FIRST TIME attempting to film with the Tiger prop, so the motion looked really bad. Re-shooting this stuff after a lot of experience filming with it, meant that at least the tiger moved a lot better the second time around.

The Location:
Initially, the Ty 4 episode called for a river location. After waking up from the nightmare inside of the valley, I wanted some shots of myself Kayaking up the river going back to that old mockumentary idea. And again, the river would be a different type of location to film in. There were a few problems with this idea...

• Shooting - To get this filmed, I'd need someone on the riverbank following me upstream while I'm on the boat by myself. Most riverbanks are quite messy with a lot of flora obstructing the view and path.
• Purpose - As the series evolved into an adventure story, this felt more and more like a just because you can, doesn't mean you should debate on what it would add to the videos. I'm still a fan of the idea that a video just starts me out on the water like "where the hell did he get a kayak? He's supposed to be lost" as just a dumb gag. But it seemed excessive.
• Location - At the end of the day, there were just no locations that suits both the river AND bush locations I wanted to feature. And the best rivers in theory, were just impractical on such a short time frame for filming at the time.

Ultimately the idea was scrapped and the backup selected was a location I've wanted to use for another project in the past. Some of you might recall I attempted to go up a snowy mountain to filming some "snowboarding" for the Tony Hawk SHRED episode in 2018? Well that is the mountain you see here.

When visiting in 2018 for that failed shoot, I had a look around the walking trails and picnic area before you start to climb towards the peak and realised, that it would be the perfect location for some Ty the Tasmanian Tiger the following year. So as a Plan B, I think it worked out very well for this episode. And yes, despite the video saying we were travelling through a valley, I was actually on the side of a mountain.

Mount Barrow, Tasmania for those curious! 😉

Credits Shot Changes:
While this shot is in sight, I'll tell you that the credits scenes was originally supposed to take place at night time with Jak staring up at the stars. As I've said already through the project, you need certain equipment for filming night stuff and my camera just can't do it. So I opted to fake it so that it would at least be consistent with the other night time shots in the series. However the masking for the sky and fakeness of it was WAY too much work for what it was, plus it looked fake and shit anyway so I just forgot about it and called it a day on the project (no pun intended).

General Production:
Out of all the episodes in this 6 part series, this was the longest to complete between when the script was finalized, through until we finished filming and edited: May 2019 - January 2020.
Prior to that, it was the Ty 3: Night of the Quinkan episode between May - August of 2019.

This was always going to be the weakest episode in the series as there just isn't that much to say about the game, it doesn't inspire much and after the nightmare episode, we're just waiting around for the conclusion of the narrative. But I still think it was ok, following the nightmare episode makes it feel a lot more mediocre than it probably is, though it's still nothing special in my opinion, just another video.

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That's a WRAP... thank fucking christ!
Like I said, this was a very simple episode to get done and there isn't a whole lot more to cover on it really. But despite everything else going on in my life at the time, I was just so relieved that it was finally over after a hard year on this project. So much so that it's taken a month or so to kick in that it's over with and even then, I still feel like I'm in the middle of it.

Series Reception and Performance:
This is where it gets kind of upsetting for me to be honest. I'm actually debating if I should title the Making-of video documentary something along the lines of "The Making-of My Biggest Flop" which while seeming quite dramatic, is actually a pretty accurate representation.
I've very thankful for all of the people who watched, enjoyed and supported the series as it has meant so much for me to do. It's a time of my life I'll never forget, for better or worse. But I just can't sit here and pretend like the entire thing was a massive success.

From the start, the Ty series underperformed next to a lot of projects a quarter of the production complexity. So yes, by the ratio of WORKLOAD and PAYOFF, it's really a 100:1 once it's all said and done.

• Part One - The documentary/interview episode was something different and a video I've very proud of, though easily skipped by most.
• Part Two: Ty 1 - This is the best performing episode and by far the most simple to digest without any prior knowledge.
• Part Three: Ty 2 - Has performed ok but still underperformed next to episodes from previous series reviews that were far less effort to produce.
• Part Four: Ty 3 - Numbers on this are lower again which is a shame, as this was the 2nd most complicated episodes to complete
• Part Five: Ty GBA/Nightmare - This video was always going to do worse than the others, but having a 4 month gap between the previous video in the series. The most complicated episode was a complete bomb, dead on arrival in the beginning of 2020.
• Part Six: Ty 4 - This video so far is in the exact same position as Ty GBA, however I don't even care because this was the most basic of all the episodes.

Closing Thoughts!
I'm going to do my best to forget that stuff from here on out because it's just far too depressing for me after all the heartache and sacrifice, but also because I'm still super proud of the entire project and I certainly had a lot of fun working on it... which at the end of the day, is the most important thing!

So thank you all so much for reading this and supporting the channel through this project and until the next crazy thing I come up with, I hope you have a great fucking day. Cheers, mad love people! 😁